CHEESECAKE FACTORY TO BRING GRAND LUX TO MICHIGAN AVENUE

Cheesecake Factory Inc., which already has a namesake restaurant in the John Hancock Center, is looking south on the Magnificent Mile to open a Grand Lux Cafe, a new upscale casual restaurant concept.

Cheesecake Factory has signed a letter of intent to lease the second floor of the former Viacom store at 600 N. Michigan Ave., where AnnTaylor Stores Corp. opened a first-floor store last year, sources said.

Details are still being worked out, including a sign for the restaurant, which will have an entrance on Ontario Street west of the AnnTaylor entrance at the corner of Michigan. The restaurant will be about 20,000 square feet and is likely to seat more than 500.

The Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based Cheesecake Factory would sublease the space from Viacom, which is represented by Bruce Kaplan, president of Chicago-based Northern Realty Group Ltd.

The new restaurant would be the second Grand Lux Cafe, a concept the firm created last year for the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.

Unlike the Cheesecake Factory restaurants, which feature burgers and appetizers as well as the namesake desserts, the Grand Lux Cafe offers a pricier menu of steaks and seafood.

Last year, sales at the nationwide chain of 34 Cheesecake Factory restaurants averaged $942 per square foot, among the highest in the restaurant industry, even though the meals cost an average of $15 per customer.

Buyer for Ontario Place: California Public Employees Retirement System has signed a letter of intent to buy Ontario Place, a 470-unit high-rise in River North, sources said. The 50-story building at 10 E. Ontario St. is owned by a group of pension funds advised by Heitman Financial Ltd.

The Sacramento-based fund, which is advised by Boston-based General Investment and Development Co., has agreed to pay nearly $104 million for the 16-year-old property. A pension fund spokesman would not comment, and executives with Heitman and the Chicago Office of Eastdil Realty Inc. could not be reached.

Bank One portfolio sold: Automobile dealer Edward Napleton is also a real estate investor, buying an eight-building portfolio of branch banks and office buildings from Bank One Corp. Napleton, president of Oakbrook Terrace-based Napleton Automobile Group Inc., and Guy Ponticiello, a vice president of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., who handled the sale/lease-back transaction for the bank, would not comment on the price, which sources said was $29 million.

Meanwhile, a former Bank One branch in Arlington Heights is being auctioned off by Chicago-based Millennium Properties Inc. Bids are due June 15 for the 28,762-square-foot facility, which is in the Arlington Market Shopping Center and is owned by investors looking to flip the property after buying it from the bank.

Brookdale founder sells: Michael Reschke, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Prime Group Realty Trust, has sold his stake in Brookdale Living Communities Inc., the senior housing developer and operator that he founded.

Brookdale announced Reschke resigned from the board of the Chicago-based firm after selling his 39.9 percent stake in the publicly held company for $58,940,250, or $15 per share, to New York-based Fortress Investment Fund LLC.

The proceeds of the sale are likely to be used by Reschke to buy out a big Prime Group investor: Blackstone Group LP, whose chairman is former Secretary of Commerce Peter Peterson. New York-based Blackstone invested $45 million in the office and industrial real estate investment trust in 1997 with the right to sell its interest back to Reschke personally this year.

New planning division: Andrew Norman, deputy commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development, takes on new responsibilities at the city department as head of a newly created Industrial Development Division. The new division brings together under Norman's management the department's North and South Industrial Regions and its Information Technology Unit.

"Now we have one unit that is in a position to address citywide issues such as railroads, utilities and infrastructure," said Norman, 33, who also expects to work closely with the Chicago Partnership for Economic Development, a city-backed organization that promotes economic development.